Mastodon’s Troy Sanders Reveals Their New Album’s Song Writing Process

American metal band Mastodon plans to release a new album in 2017. It was mentioned earlier by members of the band that the record of the album has ended and is ready to release.

The band’s vocalist and bassist, Troy Sanders gave a new interview. In an interview by Rolling Stone, Troy talked about his own vocal performance. He said:

I definitely always try to push myself and exercise whatever range of options vocally I can ever do. I think most musicians feel that way – they’re always trying to find new techniques, sounds, patterns, energies. I go that way with whatever band I’m involved in, but especially with this band, since we’re trying to carve out our own identity. This isn’t Queens of the Stone Age part two or Mastodon part two.

We’re not attempting to ride on any of our own bands’ coattails – we’re trying to deliver our own. This band was put together so incredibly naturally that we exist for all the right reasons. We enjoy the camaraderie and the chemistry that we share. It’s the intangibles. The most common question I get is, “Why do you do this other band?” because I travel a lot, and I’m very fulfilled and happy with Mastodon. The broad answer is that this band is a different adventure, a different energy.

Another reason this band was born is from opportunity: We don’t want this opportunity to slip between our fingers. Gone Is Gone offers the four of us a very different reward than we usually experience, so it’s obviously worth us pursuing because we absolutely love it.

Troy also spoke about the band’s song writing process. Rolling Stone asked the following question, “Did all of you come into the writing process with musical seeds, or did all of the material bloom through jamming and being in the room together?”. Troy’s answer is:

“It’s nearly 50/50. You said “seeds,” and that’s a nice way to put it. All four of us came in with bits that we were excited to show each other, and a lot of those did become songs. And the other 50 percent was the old tried-and-true formula of plugging in, hitting record and jamming for a long time. It’s a very tedious, time-consuming method, but you go back and weed through an hour-and-a-half of nonstop jamming, and you pick out the pieces where all four members locked into something. Those were obviously universal feelings between the four of us, and you build on that particular part.

The opener, “Sentient,” started as a series of keyboard notes that Mike had, and we were like, “Wow, that feels dark and moody. Let’s hone in on that.” Track two, “Gift,” started as a riff or two that Troy was rocking out while checking his guitar. It turned into this fun, upbeat rock & roll song. With “Dublin,” I was playing this sad little bass line, and the other guys were attracted to it. It was very collaborative, an entire group effort. This was a brand new experience. None of us came in and said, “I’ve got this whole song” because we weren’t even sure of the entire direction of where we wanted to head. There was no conversation prior regarding what we wanted to sound like or what we should sound like. It was the blankest canvas I’ve ever witnessed, that writing session.“

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